<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Mando'a for Beginners by whitchry9</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29972577">Mando'a for Beginners</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitchry9/pseuds/whitchry9'>whitchry9</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adoption, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mando'a Language (Star Wars), The Force, canon and timeline do not spark joy and thus have been ignored if necessary</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 03:22:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,166</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29972577</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitchry9/pseuds/whitchry9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Grogu is trying to learn the language of his father.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>142</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mando'a for Beginners</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Mando'a translations are on hover, or if you're on mobile, they are at the end.</p><p>When Mando'a words did not exist, I made them up with compound words, as the language tends to do. See end notes for more linguistic nonsense and musings on Mandalorian philosophy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grogu’s father knows many languages.</p><p>There is Basic, of course. Grogu is working on this one. He understands much of it, even if he is still working on saying it.</p><p>His father also knows some Jawa, but not enough to not be made fun of for the way he spoke it.</p><p>His father is much more proficient in Tusken, which is a fascinating language, made up of words and motions.</p><p>His father also knows Huttese, although he does not speak it often. Grogu notices that he likes to surprise people with this information.</p><p>There is another language his father knows, one that Grogu had not heard before meeting him. His father slips these words into everyday conversation, murmuring to himself, speaking to Grogu, and even as exclamations when things go wrong.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“No, no<em> <span>ad’ika</span></em>,” he murmurs to Grogu when he tries to catch frogs. “We have plenty of food on the ship.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Where are these <em> <span>Jetii</span> </em>,” his father whispers to himself. “Why are they so hard to find? The whole point of our <em> <span>aka</span> </em> is to find them.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“We are <em> <span>aliit be t’ad</span> </em>,” his father tells him, holding him close to his armor.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Your legs are too short,” his father says, frowning as he picks him up to carry him. “Maybe I should get a <em> <span>birikad</span> </em>. Cara would think it was hilarious.”</p><p>If it is something that would mean he doesn’t have to walk through dense jungles and sand piles higher than him, Grogu agrees.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>One night, when he wakes yelling from a nightmare that disappears along with the scream in his throat, his father scoops him from his hammock to hold him near.</p><p>“<em><span>Ne’vercopa</span></em>?”</p><p>Grogu warbles and wipes his eyes.</p><p>His father offers him the edge of his cape, and he gladly accepts.</p><p>“Dream or memory?” his father asks, making room for Grogu at his side.</p><p>Grogu doesn’t know, and just curls closer. His father has stopped sleeping with the armor on inside the ship, and he has found it’s nicer for snuggling than the cold metal beskar.</p><p>His father sighs. “Okay, you don’t have to go back in your hammock tonight. But just tonight, okay?”</p><p>Grogu coos. He is half asleep already.</p><p>His father starts humming a familiar tune, but he is asleep before he can hear the words.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They are in a tiny village with a small school, and Grogu has been left there for the day while his father hunts down some smugglers. The other children regard him with interest. He thinks they are all older than him and somehow younger. They all speak, and try to get him to copy their words, but it is a language that he is not familiar with. Even his father had to resort to half Huttese, half diagrams and hand signals in order to make a deal with them.</p><p>He listens and watches as they show him blocks and repeat similar sounds. He coos in response, and that seems to please them.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, his father returns, and the children scatter at the sight of the imposing Mandalorian.</p><p>“Are they trying to teach you your colours?” his father asks, amused.</p><p>He picks up a block the same colour as Grogu. “<em><span>Vorpan</span></em>,” he says.</p><p>Grogu reaches for it.</p><p>His father picks up another block, this one the colour of the krill from the first planet they thought could be home.  “<em><span>Kebiin</span></em>.”</p><p>Gorgu nods in agreement.</p><p>His father picks up the final block that is near them, one that is the colour that spills from most beings before they stop moving. “<em><span>Ge’tal</span></em>.”</p><p>He doesn’t like that colour much, and whines to be picked up.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He thinks this is the language of his father’s people, the ones who do not show their faces except to their closest. Grogu has seen his father’s face. He thinks he is special in this. His father often tells people that he does not take his helmet off for anyone.</p><p>After his father finds the Jedi, after Grogu speaks with her in his mind, and she tells him Grogu’s name, after his name is at home in his father’s mouth, they are back on their ship, their home.</p><p>His father sits with him in their sleeping space, Grogu in his hammock above his father’s bed.</p><p>“Grogu?”</p><p>Grogu coos and looks at his father.</p><p>His father looks at him for a moment. Then he speaks. “<em><span>No kar’tayl gau sa’ad,</span> </em>Grogu.”</p><p>And he takes his helmet off.</p><p>Grogu looks his father in the eyes for the first time.</p><p>“Now I am your <em> <span>buir</span></em>. I know that you think of me that way. But now it is official.”</p><p>Grogu coos and reaches for his father’s face.</p><p>He places one claw on his father’s cheek and giggles when it makes his father smile.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“He is not a <em> <span>verd’ika</span></em>,” his father hisses. The word is not one that Grogu has heard before. The man his father is speaking to seems to understand it though, since he is the one who said it.</p><p>The man in blue armor scoffs at his father.</p><p>“He is only <em> <span>ik’aad</span></em>,” his father insists.</p><p>“How old were you when you took the <em> <span>Resol’nare</span></em>?” the other man asks. “How much older than him?”</p><p>“It is not the same,” his father argues. “I am to return him to his people. He will not be raised in the Way of the Mandalore.”</p><p>“Then he is <em> <span>dar’manda</span></em>.”</p><p>His father does not say anything at that, but Grogu knows he is furious. He can feel the desire to hurt the other man, to make him take back his words, whatever they mean.</p><p>“We have said the <em> <span>gai bal manda</span></em>.”</p><p>“You think that is enough?”</p><p>“First you tell me that our traditions are too extreme, now you tell me my <em> <span>ad’ika</span> </em> must adhere to all of them or be <em> <span>dar’manda</span></em>. Which is it? Make up your mind.”</p><p>His father scoops him into his arms and turns to walk away.</p><p>“Do you wish your <em> <span>ad</span> </em> to be <em> <span>aruetii darasuum</span></em>?” the man calls after them.</p><p>Grogu waves at him since his father shows no signs of stopping.</p><p>This seems to only make the man angrier, and he murmurs to himself under his helmet.</p><p>“Pay no attention to him <em> <span>ad’ika</span></em>. You follow the <em> <span>Resol’nare</span></em> as well as any Mandalorian <em> <span>ik’aad</span></em>. Perhaps when you are older, if you choose, you could take the oath. But until then, we are <em> <span>aliit</span></em>, and that is enough.”</p><p>His father calms as they move further away from the other man who spoke in his father’s language, and as nice as it was for his father to be understood in his tongue, Grogu does not hope to return to that place anytime soon.</p><p> </p><p>“Perhaps a helmet,” his father muses as the ship comes into sight. “But then again, the ears would have a hard time fitting. We shall see what the armorer suggests. You are no doubt worthy of <em> <span>beskar’gam</span></em>.”</p><p>Grogu wiggles in excitement.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Grogu thinks he is starting to understand the language. His father refers to himself as <em> <span>buir</span></em>, and Grogu understands this means parent or father. He call Grogu <em> <span>ad’ika</span> </em>, even when he is upset or angry or Grogu has been naughty, so Grogu thinks it means child. He is his father’s child after all, even when he has been bad.</p><p>He is still working on saying words in any language, but he thinks a Mandalorian word might be his first. Whatever species he is, he thinks their mouths were not made for speaking.</p><p>His claws are not conducive to Tusken either though. If only his father was more Force sensitive, everything would be simpler.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>His father is crumpled on the ground. The blurrg they had been riding had gotten startled when the earth shook, and his father, in an attempt to keep Grogu from slipping from his lap, stretched too far, and they both tumbled to the ground through the new cracks that had appeared. Grogu thinks he is better at taking falls than his father, much bouncier and resilient, but his father is protective like that, and instead wrapped himself around Grogu, taking the brunt of the damage as they rolled in a dizzying pile of limbs and sand. Grogu is getting very sick of sand.</p><p>Grogu can sense the pain radiating from his father, even before he recovers a bit, and starts to move before crying out. His face is hidden behind his helmet. Grogu is glad he cannot see it.</p><p>“Okay <em> <span>ad’ika</span></em>,” he murmurs. “This is fine. I am a little <em> <span>shuk’la</span></em>, but that’s fine. Nothing a <em> <span>baa’ur</span> </em> can’t fix. Or maybe even some bacta. We have some in the ship still, right?”</p><p>Grogu doesn’t know. He wriggles out from his father’s arms and steps in something wet. Sand isn’t normally like that, and he doesn’t like it.</p><p>He whines, climbing back up onto his father’s armor.</p><p>“<em>A<span>d’ika</span></em>, you’re <em> <span>talyc</span></em>. Are you okay? Where are you hurt?” he demands, trying to sit up. Grogu slips off as he shifts, and lands in the wet again.</p><p>He starts to cry. His father is hurting and doesn’t understand how wrong things are, and Grogu doesn’t know what to do. His father gets mad when he tries to help sometimes.</p><p>“It is strange,” his father says. “I think maybe I am the one who is bleeding.”</p><p>He slumps down again, and Grogu can see where the wet is coming from now. His father’s leg is bent, sticking out from inside his armor, seeping onto the sand.</p><p>“I can fix this,” his father says. “I just need a minute. Just need <em> <span>nuhoyir</span></em>. Everything will be fine.”</p><p>He sounds tired.</p><p>“I could probably use your <em> <span>gaa’tayl</span> </em> actually,” he says a moment later.</p><p>Grogu shakes him as much as he can with his tiny hands. His father barely stirs. The wet grows larger.</p><p>“<em><span>Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum</span></em>,” his father mumbles. Grogu recognizes that phrase. It is the one his father says every night before bed, as he takes his helmet off and gives him a kiss on the head. It is the one he says before leaving him with aunt Cara or one of his other friends before going on a mission too dangerous for Grogu to go on. It is a goodbye, it is a goodnight, it is affectionate, it is a promise.</p><p>It is final.</p><p> </p><p>Grogu screams. No. No. He would not let this happen. He raises his hand. He forces his father’s leg back into position. He makes his father’s body hum and sing again.</p><p> </p><p>He pulls himself up onto his father’s armor, scrambles to his helmet. He is getting red footprints everywhere, but they will clean. He pushes and pulls his father’s helmet off, using a tug of his mind to finally get it free.</p><p>He places his hands on his father’s face, demanding he open his eyes. Grogu wants to see his eyes again. It is something special, only for him. He has repaired his father. Why will he not open them? Is he tired? Grogu is tired. Doing these things always makes him tired. But he doesn’t want to sleep yet, not before his father wakes up.</p><p>He screams again, poking his father’s face with his claws.</p><p>“<em><span>Buir</span></em>!” he yells. “<em><span>Buir</span></em>!” He stomps his foot, not caring if this was one of the offenses that would earn him what his father referred to as a ‘<em><span>ca’nara dayn</span></em><em>’</em>, when Grogu would have to sit in his hammock with no toys. He would gladly do that if it meant his father sat up and made him do it.</p><p>“<em><span>BUIR</span></em>!” he screams, and he thinks something inside him might break if this does not work, something that whispers to him in the dark.</p><p> </p><p>But his father jerks awake at that, and Grogu slips from him to land in the wet again, which has at least stopped growing.</p><p>“Grogu?” he says. He sounds confused. He feels his face, feels his helmet is gone. He smears the red around. “Are you okay?”</p><p>Grogu coos.</p><p>“Did… did you say your first word?”</p><p>“<em><span>Buir</span></em>,” Grogu agrees.</p><p>His father gasps. He looks delighted. “Your first word and it’s in Mando’a! Wait til I tell everyone about this. My <em> <span>ad’ika</span> </em> said his first word.”</p><p>There is more wet on his father’s face now, but this is the less scary kind.</p><p> </p><p>His father looks around.</p><p>“I guess our blurrg ran off, huh?”</p><p>Grogu hasn’t noticed, but probably agrees.</p><p> </p><p>His father, his <em>buir, </em>gets to his feet gingerly, testing his leg that Grogu fixed.</p><p>“I have you to thank for this?” he says, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>Grogu coos. “<em>Buir</em>,” he says again, holding his arms up.</p><p>His father sighs but scoops him up and nestles him into his side.</p><p>Grogu is fast falling asleep, but he is awake for long enough to feel his father hum and pick his helmet up. “Good job <em> <span>ad’ika</span></em>,” he says fondly. Instead of putting his helmet on, he tucks Grogu in it, and holds it close like precious cargo, before setting off across the sand towards their home.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It’s interesting because dar’manda is described as meaning ‘not an outsider, but one who has lost his heritage’, but before and during the Mandalorian wars, any people who were not Mandalorians were considered dar’manda, and soulless from birth until they joined the Mandalorians and lived by the Resol’nare. I’m not sure if the term changed after the wars, or if it was simply a matter of opinions. Either way, someone who breaks the rules is absolutely considered dar’manda, and is thus soulless and unable to go to the Mandalorian afterlife, but it’s up for interpretation whether all other species and people are also dar’manda.</p><p>Also while I was writing this I found out there’s no Mando’a word for orange and had to rethink my life for a bit.</p><p>Ad’ika: darling, term of affection for a child<br/>Jetii: Jedi<br/>Aka: mission<br/>Aliit be t’ad: clan of two<br/>Birikad: baby carrying harness<br/>Ne’vercopa: bad dream*<br/>Vorpan: green<br/>Kebiin: blue<br/>Ge’tal: red<br/>No kar’tayl gau sa’ad: I know your name as my child, Mandalorian adoption vow<br/>Buir: parent, father<br/>Verd’ika: little soldier<br/>Ik’aad: baby, child under three<br/>Resol’nare: six actions, the tenets of Mandalorian life<br/>Dar’manda: a state of not being Mandalorian<br/>Gai bal manda: adoption ceremony, lit name and soul<br/>Ad: child, son<br/>Aruetii darasuum: forever an outsider<br/>Aliit: clan, family<br/>Beskar’gam: armor, lit iron skin<br/>Shuk’la: broken<br/>Baa’ur: medic<br/>Talyc: bloody<br/>Nuhoyir: sleep<br/>Gaa’tayl: help<br/>Ni kar’tayl gar darasuum: I love you, lit I hold you in my heart forever<br/>Ca’nara dayn: time out*</p><p>*- compound words I made</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>